Mom Held in Contempt for not FORCING 14 yo to visit Abusive father OPEN UP INVESTIGATION

My daughter's life could depend on this. It would also be good to reopen the sex abuse investigation, so that ALL the hard and extemporanious evidence can be looked at by someone who knows what they are doing. The POLICE investigation should never have hinged SOLELY on the 15 min interview given by a colleague of the Father's attorney. This is wrong.

Letter to

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Pennsylvania State House

and 4 others

Pennsylvania State Senate

President of the United States

Pennsylvania Governor

Attorney General, State of PAKathleen Kane (Attorney General, State of PA)

I just signed the following petition addressed to: PA State Governor, State Reps, Congress , Senators

----------------Dear Peaceful Loving People, The Common Pleas Court of Chester County, PA is forcing me, by way of holding me in contempt, to compel my 14 year old daughter, Angela to visit her abusive father. My daughter, who claims to have been sexually abused by her father, Angelo Popolizio, is court ordered to visit with him unsupervised overnight 2 weekends a month and on alternating holidays by Judge Bortner. To be fair, CYF Chester County did a sexual abuse investigation, utilizing a Colleague of the Father’s Attorney, and after a 15 min interview their result was unfounded. Incidentally, CYF Chester County was going to permit 4 unsupervised visits prior to the investigation being complete. They did not believe Angela because she didn’t cry enough, and they thought she was aligned with me. Just so you know, CYF case worker Mandi Campbell gave me no other choice, just Dr. Shope to do this “Veracity study”. Which I found out at trial they hardly ever do. Angela has also been hurt physically, mentally and emotionally by him in front of witnesses, and she is afraid of him. He is extremely abusive; we are both named as protected parties on a Protection from Abuse Order, and it has been extended until March 2013. It has been violated 4 times, twice while under house arrest. Just because she was not physically hurt by him during the very limited amount of visitation the father had in the beginning of 2011, the Judge refused to see the emotional, and mental impact that forcing a child to visit her abuser causes. At the Custody trial, during the interview of my daughter in chamber with the Judge, she wanted to tell him about what happened to her when her father abused her, but the Judge stopped her and asked her how she was doing in school.

Since the PFA does NOT SUPERSEDE the Custody Order, the courts are treating this as though the PFA means nothing. There is absolutely no mention in the Opinion of the court dated 6-30-11, that this PFA includes Angela as a protected party. This is very dangerous, as one supervised visit in 2009, Her Father manhandled (June 9, 2009 Incident # JO3-1239517 PSP Embreeville) her causing her bruises on her arms, and this violation of the PFA was directly involving my daughter. More recently, October 14, 2011, she was forced to visit with him; there was an altercation resulting in her taken into custody by the PA State Police. According to her, he would not stop yelling and screaming to her about me and making up stories about when we were married (the marriage ended May 2007). He also told her to stop calling him a molester; the prior Sunday she had warned his wife’s 17 year old niece about the sexual abuse. She asked him to stop and he kept badgering her, and she couldn’t take it and kicked him. His wife called the police after he, weighing about 290lbs threw my 100lb daughter to the ground and pinched the pressure points on the back of her neck. She has been refusing to visit since 2008. She gets into my car, to go 1 hour west to Chester County PA, and then the third party takes her to his house. Most of the time she simply refuses to get out of the car. She had been going when I am threatened with jail time, but after this past incident, she believes that he will push her over the edge again and she is afraid of what will happen.

In November 2011, the therapist that CPS of Bucks County found for my daughter, Dr. Yvonne Faucett, backed out of providing therapy for her 4 months into therapy because of various reasons, one of which was that she said that there was no connection. She also told me that if it weren’t for the visits with her Father, Angela is a happy and normal 14 year old teenager. And before the Dr. terminated the Doctor / Patient relationship she stated in a letter to CPS of Bucks County that “any Paternal visitation or other contact poses a potential safety issue for both parties”… You wonder what CPS services does with this information; they pass it on to the Judge, who is still compelling me to FORCE my daughter to visit her abuser. The courts took my parental rights to protect my child away from me, and on Tuesday Dec 20th, 2011, there will be a possibility that the Judge will reverse Custody and place me in prison for a maximum sentence of 6 month. I just got word Friday that there is a yet another hearing scheduled in March 2012. But this Tuesday, upon incarceration, the Father could gain custody of her. Her two case workers Rachel Silver and Marjorie Clarke told me that whatever the Judge decides goes, even if they feel that the child is in danger. This is the type of incompetence and lack of initiative that is flourishing in the system that leaves our children unprotected. There is no back-up plan when the Judge doesn’t listen to the people in the front line. My daughter suffers from PTSD, anxiety and has severe panic attacks. But the Judge said, what happened in the past happened in the past, it’s time to move forward. I wonder if he can get away with saying that to a US Vet. Anyone who has, or knows someone who has been traumatized realizes that you just don’t “get over it”. Today 21 months later, my child has NOT received the type of therapy that was recommended by 2 different Doctors. Soon after March 2010, I filed a petition to get her the proper treatment, but her father refused. In fact, the recommended therapist recommended a different facility, but the father refused that as well. He subsequently keeps refusing help for her. Going as far as refusing her medical attention during a panic attack at his home on March 23, 2011, the ambulance was sent away while my daughter has a BP of 140/90 and a pulse rate of 162. Despite his consistence refusal of medical treatment, CPS Bucks County and CYF Chester County feel that he is a good father.

I couldn’t imagine being molested, raped, or in this case (by definition of the PA CODE) sexually assaulted. Hiding it for so long out of fear, then finally telling someone, and not be believed. A colleague of the father’s Attorney, Dr. Linda Shope said my daughter was a liar after a 15 min interview, because it was a custody case with questionable timing of disclosure, and she was aligned with me.The Criminal investigation was essentially non- existent, Pennsylvania State Police took the word of CYF of Chester County and everything hinged on Dr. Linda Shope’s finding. They looked no further. In late April 2011 PSP closed the case because Angela did not have therapist for them to speak with. Her father was successful in making sure that she did not, does not, and will not have any type of therapy where he is not involved.

We had been divorced for over a year before he filed for custody and it was only after my daughter displayed fear and contempt toward him and only AFTER we obtained the PFA, he filed for custody. During a routine Medical exam in July 2008, she was diagnosed as being depressed, so I got her help right away. In Sept 2008, when he found out she had a therapist, he went nuts on both of us, and beat me in front of her. He kept saying “What did she say?” What did she say” looking back I can only surmise that he wanted to know if she had told about the sexual abuse. Of course I knew nothing of this at the time, although I had started to suspected. (Sept 23, 2008, Complaint# 47-08-24284- East Fallowfield Police Dept.)

He tried to abduct her from the hospital after he beat me, Sept 23, 2008 West Goshen Police and the very next week, he called her incessantly, even from other people’s phones, sometimes up to 26 – 30 times at a time Sept 29, 2008, Incident # J0312103606- PSP Embreeville. Before finding out the reason for the hatred and the homicidal ideation for her father, they started reunification right away. He gave her cards and letters saying, stuff like, “Daddy will never hurt you”. The proof is blatant, solid and not just circumstantial, but the DA did not want to look at it. Kristin Kubiak, Asst DA Chester County Sex Abuse Unit, told me that she believed my daughter but they could not prove it in court, so it was thrown out. The DA did not care that she had a truthful polygraph result. They failed to speak with the other daughter Alexis B. , that he admitted to me that he molested “It’s not like I knew her when she was a baby”, She was 17 when they first met in May 2007, and I had witnessed him give her liquor and pain medicine. Angela said that he treated her like a girlfriend. CYF Chester County ignored reported incidents of, my daughter screaming in the middle of the night “Daddy Daddy please don’t, it hurts!!”, the night showers, the panic attacks in 2009. I asked her if anyone did anything to her and she denied it at the time.

One time my daughter videotaped him going crazy, yelling stuff about me, it resulted in a Non Traffic Citation where he destroyed her Cell Phone and crushed it into the ground, he pled guilty and paid restitution. The media card was still ok and the same Assistant DA Kubiak told me that she may be charged with a crime if she videotapes him again.

He should be in prison, but instead, I am facing imprisonment. I am the only parent that provides for her, medical insurance, birthday and Christmas gifts, I provide transportation to any place she wants to go, lunch money, encouraging her to have extra activities after school, make sure she gets together with her friends, has food clean clothes and a peaceful safe place to live ( he had evicted us from our Chester County home in 2009).

It is heart wrenching to witness a fairly happy child (Straight A/ A+ Student) accomplished musician, 3-d animator/ artist, confident and friendly teenage girl , reduced to a solemn, sad, fearful girl who can’t cope, who thinks that if she wasn’t on this Earth that he’d have nothing to fight over and bites her knuckles until they bleed. She feels like an object, a thing. But I see the beautiful person she is, and the adult she can and will become. Please sign my petition,

Please help me get the word out, please sign this petition to make it so that Angela does not have to be FORCED to visit with her abusive father. She is in fear for her life, and so am I. Plead with the Senators, Congress people, State Representatives, and the Governor of PA.

~We are awaiting the signed final order from the judge in this case. It appears that Angela is no longer ordered to visit her abuser. This petition is still active and will continue to be active until we have 1,000 signatures totake to the DA in Chester County, PA.